THE fate of the last remaining western grey whales is bringing conservationists and big business into open conflict. At the centre are plans to run an oil pipeline through the whales’ main feeding grounds, near Sakhalin Island off the east coast of Russia.
The $12 billion invested in the project makes it Russia’s largest single foreign investment. Shell is the main shareholder of Sakhalin Energy Investment Company (SEIC), which plans to extend existing production facilities and extract 150 million tonnes of oil and 500 billion cubic metres of natural gas from the area. But it agreed to await the findings of an independent environmental assessment before going ahead.…
